You’ve heard the mantra, chanted by everyone on the left, from Michael Moore to The New York Times: America’s profit-centric health-care system is dismally inferior to that of Canada’s purely pristine humanitarian-driven version.
Indeed, the central theme of Moore’s 2007 “documentary” film, “Sicko,” was that Canada — with its universal, government-run and taxpayer-funded “free” health care — is a medical paradise.
And a Times editorial last August glowingly declared: “Contrary to what one hears in political discourse, the bulk of the research comparing the United States and Canada found a higher quality of care in our northern neighbor.”
Well, tell that to Danny Williams, premier of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The popular 59-year-old politician has discovered that nothing is for free. He’s somewhere in the US today — prepping for heart surgery.
Seems the procedure he needs simply isn’t available in Newfoundland — at any price.
And, with his own health on the line, he prefers to put his trust in the “second-rate, profit-driven health-care behemoth” south of the St. Lawrence, rather than try a hospital in Canada.
“Ultimately, we have to be the gatekeepers of our own health,” said Williams’ deputy premier, “and he has taken medical advice from a number of different sources,”
Williams, he added, “is doing what’s best for him.”
Precisely.
Last summer, President Obama — who still hopes to overhaul American health-care — defended the Canadian system as one that “works for Canada.”
Not for all Canadians, apparently.
Certainly not those well-connected pols, who — like Danny Williams — can afford better health care in the good ol’ US of A.
Get well soon, Danny.